From the illusion of achieving her first victory as a professional to the illusion of playing in front of her public, surrounded by family and friends, in a course she knows very well. This is the roller coaster of emotions that has risen Maria Parra, inevitably become the local protagonist of La Reserva de Sotogrande Invitational, Ladies European Tour tournament that begins on Thursday 16 May at the golf course of La Reserva Club de Sotogrande and brings together 126 players from 31 countries.
After a long and eventful journey, the Guadiareña arrived at the tournament after winning the first title of her professional career at the IOA Invitational, a Symetra Tour event played last week at the Atlanta National Golf Club, and she did it with a smile on her face and eager to fight for everything in the first stop of the Ladies European Tour in Sotogrande.
“I live in Guadiaro, five minutes away, and I’ve played a few times on the La Reserva Club course. When I played the Sotogrande Cup in my last year it was here. Despite having a tournament this week on the Symetra Tour, being the tournament next to home made me very excited to play it surrounded by my family, “explained Parra.
The Spaniard dedicated words of praise both to the tournament and to the venue chosen to play it, a demanding but fair course that will test the golfers of this Ladies European Tour tournament hosted by Annika Sorenstam.
“Apart from the fact that the tournament is very well organized, we are playing on a spectacular course, in incredible conditions, and having Annika’s support and her being here with us makes it that much better,” added Parra.
Catriona Matthew, captain of the European team of the Solheim Cup, is another of the great assets of this La Reserva de Sotogrande Invitational, and Maria Parra makes it clear that her presence is an incentive for her.
“The dream of any golfer, or at least mine, is to play in the Solheim Cup or the Olympic Games. I was lucky enough to meet Catriona on the LPGA and she’s a spectacular person, and to have her next to me here is impressive.
As for her chances in the tournament, Maria Parra arrives with a backpack full of illusion and eager to leave behind a complicated stage.
“The triumph has encouraged me a lot. I’ve had two difficult years in which the game I have inside me didn’t come out. It’s a very good victory, my first as a professional and now we have to keep working, improving and playing well”.
Parra will be accompanied by ten other compatriots who will be looking for the third Spanish title in the Ladies European Tour season after those won by Nuria Iturrios in Morocco and Dubai. In front of Noemí Jiménez, Luna Sobrón, Silvia Bañón or Carmen Alonso, there will be a laureate international line-up headed by the aforementioned Catriona Matthew, Meghan MacLaren, Marianne Skarpnord, Caroline Hedwall, Beth Allen or Lee Ann Pace, a golfer who won the 2013 Spanish Open and has finished second in our country on two other occasions. The South African returns to the activity after retiring due to injury three weeks ago in San Francisco, and wants to renew her idyll with the tournaments in our country.
“I have great memories of Spain and I love this course. In particular the greens are spectacular and the ball rolls beautifully. I’m really looking forward to playing,” said Pace at the end of his return from the Pro-Am.
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Meghan MacLaren’s team, Pro-Am winner
Annika Sorenstam stole the show at the Pro-Am of the La Reserva de Sotogrande Invitational on a sunny day full of action and good play. After resorting to the handicap of the amateurs to resolve a triple tie at -26 in the lead, Meghan MacLaren and amateurs Peter William Featherstone, Geoffrey Turner and Stephen Hutchings have ended up winning. With the same result finished the combination of Lee-Anne Pace and Irina Nesterova, Karina Budantseva and Svetlana Kripaytite, and closed the podium Silvia Bañón with Juan Carlos Domínguez, Ignacio del Cuvillo Cano and Claudia Alnajim.
La Reserva de Sotogrande Invitational is sponsored by Sotogrande SA, the founding company of Sotogrande, and organized by Deporte & Business and the Ladies European Tour. The tournament will have extensive international television coverage and viewers in our country will enjoy it live during the four days through Movistar Golf, Teledeporte and Andalucía TV.
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